FROM BUKUOM TO SYDNEY 2000.

Sept 2000 07’16

00’16

Natsot: instructions in Ga to boy boxer in black trunks.

Better to smile, because in Bukuom, there’s no running from a fight. (4 secs)

Natsot: white trunks boxer being carried out on shoulders.

00’27

Once the line is drawn, even boys must stand their ground in the tough heart of Accra, (pronounced Ah-KRAH) Ghana’s capital.

A crowd grows quickly and won’t accept a backward step. (9 secs)

Natsot: white trunks supporters sing while white trunks shadow boxes....

But these 11 year olds are willing, and fight in whatever gloves they can get.

Boxing is in their blood and social standing is at stake. (9 secs)

Natsot: fight action

00’49

The crowd’s excitement breeds pressure.

Each boxer has an extended camp of supporters riding on every punch, itching to throw a few of their own.

Everyone immersed in the action is from the Ga tribe. (pronounced Gah).

Its people live throughout Accra and the city’s surrounds, but only in the small enclave of Bukuom is boxing a way of life central to their identity. (21 secs)

01’10

Natsot: corner instructions for boxer in black trunks.

As a boy, a scratched out ring gave E.T.A Abbey his first experience of the Bukuom boxing phenomenon.

Now, he’s an expert in Ga culture. (9 secs)

01.24, E.T.A Abbey, Ga Cultural Expert

The other tribes, the other ethnic groups, are afraid to fight to see blood oozing, but we take delight in fighting. If you feel like boxing, all you have to do is clench your fist, roll it in the air, put it on your head and shout oh do doo doo du.... if anybody wants to fight you or he feels he can fight you he will also respond ohi yea and then you start fighting.

02’14

Like 95 per cent of Ghana’s boxing squad, 19 year old Olympian Alfred Tettey first proved himself in Bukuom.

(Shots of Alfred Tettey running up stairs in Black Star Square)

And he finds no mystery in the fact that class fighters and world champions like Azumah Nelson had their beginnings on his town’s poor streets.

(Tracking shots of streets of Bukuom showing dirt roads and laneways 1.06.32-40 or 01.07.19)

It has always been that way. (24 Secs)

02’35

Alfred Tettey, Olympic Boxer

Our forefathers they are die...already to go, their ghosts is there, so when we started boxing from there they follow you. When we go to fight they all follow you to go to fight, you know they all follow you to go to fight, so they give you more strength to fight.

ETA Abbey adds that Bukuom’s boxing spirit has just as much to do with the pride of the living and the lessons they teach their children. (9 secs)

03’04, E.T.A. Abbey, Ga Cultural Expert

You shouldn’t go home and tell the parents I was beaten by this and so and so forth....it’s a shame, so you have to fight and that’s how we’ve been trained.

We are told to defend ourselves....so even in the ring it’s a shame to be beaten and go back.

03’24

Alfred Tettey knows that.

He had his first fight on the streets at 11. He won and kept on winning.

Keen to become someone through in boxing he began to train seriously after his third victory.

Up at 4.30 each morning, he put in two hours before school.

By the end of lessons at midday he was cutting hair in his brother’s Barber shop . His wages paid for a coach who sharpened his street skills in a backyard gym.

Neighbours grew used to him pounding away like clockwork from four till six.( 29 Secs)

Natsot: Alfred working on the bag.

After training, Alfred was back for another stint working the clippers until he went to bed at about 9.

(Use rest of Barber shop vision with sequence of Alfred cutting hair here)

But five years of hard work paid off.

In 1996, all eyes were on Alfred Tettey as the 16 year old won three fights in Atlanta.

(Bukuom kids looking through woodwork of Barbers watching Alfred cut hair.)

He says the Olympic judges robbed him of a medal chance but with Sydney on the horizon he hasn’t lowered his sights. (23 secs)

04’19, Alfred Tettey, Olympic Boxer

If I take Olympic gold I think...I think I would feel so happy.... you know I would feel so happy. So now I want to prove myself to this Olympic Games....I have to take gold for Ghana.

04’37

Each weekday, Ghana’s best amateur boxers join each other at Accra stadium for Olympic Squad training.

Like Alfred, almost all call Bukuom home and their bond is obvious. (11 secs)

Natsot- 3 seconds of singing as the boxers run down the staight of Accra Stadium.

But from a squad of thirty, only a few will see Sydney in 2000.

Competition for an Olympic spot is fierce.

Athlete’s are expensive to send overseas and Ghana’s whole 1998 Commonwealth Games team in Kuala Lumpur numbered only thirty-one. (13 secs)

Natsot: Coach Castellanos trains boxers with pads and gloves.

05’11

A Cuban, Miguel Perez Castellanos came to Western Africa to coach Ghana’a boxing team in 1995.

He’s learnt the Bukuom boys language and barks instructions in a broken mixture of Gah and English, all the while, watching for the trademarks of a medal winner.

(Dur: 14 secs)

Natsot: “Ya man aposi....Ghana work work.”

05’30

Miguel knows his fighters love boxing. They rip into each other and some would rather throw punches than worry about headgear or mouthgaurds. (8 secs)

Natsot: sparring action with the two boxers in red shorts and singlets.

They’re all talented and hungry for success.

1 gold and 3 bronze medals in 1998 at Kuala Lumpur, ranked his team fourth in the Commonwealth. (9 secs)

Natsot: shadow boxing close-ups.

05’49

Apart from their Bukuom background, the boxers have something else in common: they’re all poor.

Each trains morning and night, but few have any regular income.

Miguel is never sure whether they’ve got enough money to eat properly or how long he can hold them in the amateur ranks. (17 secs)

Natsot: Castellanos on pads

Obviously, the lure of the professional circuit and actually getting paid to fight is strong.

Few of the boxers would easily dismiss the notion of fighting for a purse income, no matter how good their prospects of an Olympic medal.

And that’s a real problem.

Preparation of amateur fighters in developed countries may run from 4 to 6 years. Miguel says he can only count on 12 months of training with any of his boxers.

(25 secs)

Natsot: Alfred Tettey hitting pads and covering up while his coach goes to the body.

06’33

In that way, Alfred Tettey is an exception.

He already has Olympic experience and at 19 he’s still young enough to build a long professional career.

But for all Ghana’s amateur boxers, Olympic success is seen as the first step towards a making a living in the ring. (16 secs)

Natsot: boxers noise.

06’52

What’s more each of them want to add to the legend of Bukuom boxing.

And according to the Olympic committee that’s an advantage that Ghana’s representatives will have over the rest of the world in Sydney 2000. (12 secs)

07’04

Harry Hornsby- Odoi, Ghana Olympic Committee.

When they know they can make it that is their major motivation learning from their past heroes, the Azumahs the Ike Quarteys, the others who have ever come from those areas. You see these people get just one single motivation, yes a man who comes from midst has made it, we can also make it.

Natsot: Closing shot of Boxers finishing training and slapping each others hands.

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Boxing in Bukuom (Duration 7.16)

Supers:

1. E.T.A. Abbey, Expert in Ga Culture @ 1.10 and 2.51.

1. Alfred Tettey, Altanta Olympian @ 2.20 and 4.03.

3. Harry Hornsby-Odoi, Secretary-General, Ghana Olympic Committee @ 6.48.

Music

“The Limpopo River Song” (Track 4), “Power of One- Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack” (Electra Record) (1.34 to 2.00 on tape).